Conan O’Brien and Aaron Bleyaert return for another Clueless Gamer segment on Conan. This time they’re reviewing several Atari games played on a wood-veneered, six-switch version of the Atari 2600, not to be confused with a George Foreman grill. They also rocked two CX-40 joysticks, not to be confused with the defibrillator used on Elvis. The system, bundled with two joysticks and the game Combat, would have set you back $199 in 1978 (about $700 in today’s dollars). Now let’s watch Conan make fun of it.

He plays Atari classics like Combat, Pitfall, Space Invaders, and possibly the worst game ever, E.T., which I played often as an easily-amused three year old. While reading the plotline of Missile Command from the owners manual, Conan interjects, “It’s so sad that someone had to write this.”

After playing several games, Conan concludes, “What a horrible era for mankind. I can go and look at an old butter churn or a turn-of-the-century car, and I can appreciate the beauty of it. I can look at a 1950s Bakelite phone and it still works and it’s very beautiful. [gestures at Atari] This is awful.”

After looking at that E.T. game in action, thinking back to how I somehow tolerated playing it, I can’t say Conan’s wrong. The history of gaming is paved with E.T. cartridges. Perhaps literally.

Or that’s the approach he is taking for the segments. I think he’s developed a bit more of a crusty persona over the years. Similar to David Letterman actually. Just different targets for them to go after.